Rivian Recalls 3,829 More EVs After Turn Signals Fail Again

Rivian is recalling 3,829 more R1S and R1T electric vehicles over front turn signals that can fail to light up, the second time in about a year the automaker has had to address the exact same defect on the same parts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration logged the campaign as 26V-508. VINs became searchable on NHTSA’s recall database on August 31, and Rivian expects to mail owner notification letters starting September 29.

What Is Actually Wrong

The recall covers 3,204 R1S SUVs built between June 12, 2024 and May 26, 2026, along with 625 R1T pickups built between October 1, 2024 and March 19, 2026. In each case, an improperly manufactured lamp assembly can cause one or both front turn signals to fail to illuminate or flash when the driver activates them.

A turn signal that does not fire is a small-sounding defect with an outsized real-world consequence. Other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians rely on that blinking light to predict what a vehicle is about to do at intersections, in merge lanes and in parking lots. Rivian’s filing states it became aware of 17 instances of turn signal failure across the United States between June 2025 and July 2026, though the company has not linked any of those reports to a crash.

Why This Recall Is Happening Again

Rivian issued its first recall for this exact defect roughly a year earlier, replacing faulty lamp assemblies supplied by the same vendor. According to the automaker’s newest filing, the supplier failed to fully quarantine the defective parts after that first campaign, and additional bad lamp assemblies made their way into vehicles built afterward. In effect, Rivian caught the same manufacturing flaw slipping back into its supply chain a second time.

That detail is worth noting for owners deciding whether to trust a first recall repair. A vehicle that already had its turn signals replaced under the earlier campaign is not automatically safe; only Rivian’s VIN lookup tool can confirm whether a specific vehicle falls under this newest, expanded round. Owners should not assume a prior repair covers them without checking again.

Checking If Your Rivian Is Affected

Owners can check their vehicle’s status by entering their 17-digit VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or through Rivian’s own recall information page. Rivian’s internal tracking code for this campaign is FSAM-1833, which service advisors can reference directly if an owner calls in before receiving a mailed notice.

Rivian service technicians will inspect the front turn signal assemblies on affected vehicles and replace any defective lamps at no cost. Owners do not need to wait for the September 29 mailing to schedule an inspection; the VIN search tool works as soon as a vehicle appears in the database, which happened August 31. Anyone who bought a used R1S or R1T built in the affected windows should run the check even if the previous owner never mentioned a recall. Notices follow the vehicle’s registration rather than a specific buyer, so a change in ownership does not guarantee the new owner learns about it right away.

A Small Recall by a Fast-Growing Automaker

At under 4,000 vehicles, this recall is tiny compared with the six- and seven-figure campaigns more established automakers file routinely. But its size says less about severity than it does about scale. Rivian delivered around 22,559 vehicles combined in the first half of 2026 across its entire lineup, including the R1S, R1T, its electric delivery van and the newly launched R2, and the company has raised its full-year delivery guidance to a range of 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. Against that smaller production base, a narrow manufacturing defect tied to one supplier’s parts can still touch a meaningful share of vehicles built in a specific window, even when the raw recall number looks modest next to a legacy automaker’s tally.

The repeat nature of the defect is the more notable thread here. Supplier quality failures that resurface after a first recall are not unique to Rivian, but they underscore a real gap in how effectively automakers and their parts suppliers track “quarantined” components once a defect has been identified. A part flagged as bad in one recall should not be finding its way onto an assembly line a second time, and Rivian’s own filing acknowledges that is exactly what happened.

Broader EV Recall Trends This Year

Rivian’s turn signal issue is a minor entry in a busier year for electric vehicle recalls generally. NHTSA opened a much larger investigation this summer into roughly 1.2 million Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles after complaints of front suspension links detaching without warning, and Tesla separately recalled more than 20,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for headlights bright enough to impair oncoming drivers. Electric vehicles carry more sensors, more custom lighting hardware and more software-dependent systems than comparable gas vehicles, and that complexity has translated into a steady drumbeat of recalls and investigations across the segment through 2026.

For Rivian specifically, the company has generally maintained a lighter recall history than legacy automakers scaling similar production volumes, making this second pass at the same turn signal defect somewhat out of character. Owners who bought into the brand on the strength of its safety and quality reputation could reasonably expect the automaker to tighten its supplier oversight going forward, given how avoidable a repeat parts-quarantine failure should be for a company Rivian’s size.

What Owners Should Do Now

Anyone driving a 2025 or 2026 R1S or R1T built within the affected production windows should run their VIN through NHTSA’s lookup tool immediately rather than waiting for a letter that will not arrive until late September. Until an inspection confirms the turn signals are working correctly, drivers should watch for a dashboard warning or visually confirm their signals are flashing before relying on them in traffic, especially at night when a dark turn signal is harder for other drivers to notice missing.

Owners with questions before a scheduled service visit can also reach Rivian’s customer support team directly through the company’s app or website, where a VIN lookup and service scheduling can typically be handled in the same session without needing to wait for the mailed notification to arrive first.

How Recalls Like This Get Caught

Federal law requires automakers to report safety defects to NHTSA within five business days of determining a defect exists, and to explain how the problem was identified. In Rivian’s case, the trail runs through a mix of dealer service reports and a small number of direct customer complaints logged over roughly 13 months, a relatively slow-building pattern compared with defects that surface in a sudden cluster of crash reports. That slow accumulation is part of why it took until August 2026 for the expanded recall to surface, even though the underlying supplier problem traces back to production batches built as early as June 2024.

NHTSA does not simply take an automaker’s word for a defect’s scope. The agency can request additional data, open its own investigation, or push a company to widen a recall’s coverage if the reported numbers appear too narrow given the failure pattern described. Once a recall is filed, the agency publishes it publicly and tracks the automaker’s remedy rate over time, giving owners and safety researchers a way to see whether a company is actually completing repairs at a reasonable pace.

What Makes This Recall Different From a Typical EV Campaign

Most electric vehicle recalls in 2026 have centered on battery software, charging systems or advanced driver assistance features, reflecting how much of an EV’s functionality runs through code rather than mechanical linkages. Rivian’s turn signal defect is a reminder that even EVs still carry plenty of conventional hardware, and that hardware can fail for the same mundane reasons a gas-powered vehicle’s parts might: a supplier shipped a bad batch, and quality control did not catch it before the parts reached an assembly line.

That distinction is worth remembering when owners think about EV reliability generally. A software bug can often be patched instantly and invisibly, the way Stellantis is fixing an unrelated rearview camera defect this year through a wireless update. A physical part defect like Rivian’s turn signal lamps requires an actual technician, an actual replacement part, and an actual appointment, regardless of how advanced the rest of the vehicle’s technology might be.

Sources:

• InsideEVs: https://insideevs.com/news/805305/rivian-r1s-r1t-turn-signal-recall/
• Carscoops: https://www.carscoops.com/2026/08/rivian-turn-signal-recall-usa/
• Autoblog: https://www.autoblog.com/news/rivian-recalls-more-evs-after-supplier-failed-to-contain-the-same-bad-parts
• Rivian: https://rivian.com/support/article/recall-information
• Autoblog: https://www.autoblog.com/news/rivian-production-delivery-figures-q2-2026